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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Bugloss (Anchusa capensis)



This is Anchusa capensis 'Blue Angel', commonly known as "Bugloss" and also known under more attractive names like "Cape Forget-Me-Not" and "Summer Forget-Me-Not".

I did not know this plant when I purchased it earlier this year and decided to get it to fill a spot and anything with blue flowers will get my attention (plus it came from Little Prince and that is usually a good sign). Co-worker Kellie told me it was a nice plant and I always follow her advice. I planted it in one of the front raised borders in partial shade, promptly forgot about it, until the blue flowers appeared. Gorgeous! And very long-lasting.

When the blooms faded, I cut it back about halfway. And now, here it is again!

Investigating it further, I've learned that it is a member of the Borage family. It is actually a biennial and native to South Africa. According to the North Carolina Extension website - 

"The genus "anchusa" is from the Greek word "anchousa", which makes reference to its use as a dye for cosmetic paint obtained from the roots of another plant in the genus Anchusa tinctoria. The species capensis translated to "from the Cape" referring to South Africa." 


The blue flowers are outstanding and the foliage is nice as well. In mild climates, it is said to be "weedy" when it self-sows. Aha - borage! 

That said, I'm in love with it at the moment. We will see what happens next year with it. 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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Comments

  1. tz_gardenSeptember 3, 2023 at 8:33 AM

    What a little beauty! Love the intense blue, I'm going to have to give this one a go. *Thanks Kris for the reminder of Annie's labor day sale.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 3, 2023 at 8:58 AM

    Now THAT is blue!
    Chavli

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